A New Door Has Been Opened...

Evan! · 05-19-2008, 06:17 PM

...thanks in large part to Bernie Brewer and his yeast washing sticky. It's funny how you can do something wrong a few times, end up with crappy results, and just give up and dismiss the practice as rubbish. That's what I did with yeast washing. I thought I had the practice down, I read tutorials several times, but every time I did it, the result was a sub-par batch of beer. Part of this was not doing the process correctly; the other part was laziness---leaving yeast cakes sitting alone in primaries post-rack for a week or more, for example.

So earlier this year, I decided that I was going to commit myself to learning this craft and keeping up a solid yeast farm. My first step was to dump all my jars of slurry down the drain and start from scratch. This was a good thing, as I had no guarantees on the quality of those jars.

Next, I read Bernie's instructions a couple times, and went to work. I washed them correctly this time---instead of saving the slurry, I saved the actual cloudy liquid. Duh.

I also got out the label maker and labeled each jar, so there'd be no confusion. That was that---I wasn't convinced until just a few minutes ago, though...

On friday, I made a starter from one of the jars of harvested Forbidden Fruit, and it was chugging along several hours later. Good sign, but not exactly a slam dunk yet. Saturday, I brewed a weizen and pitched the starter into it. Had a short lag, and was chugging away all day yesterday.

Then today...I went home for a jog at lunch and saw that the airlock had stopped bubbling and the krausen had fallen. So I took a sample and it was down to 1.013 from 1.051. Nice. But it wasn't until I tasted the sample that I was sure of my success. Damn, damn fine beer. No off-flavors, very clean and fruity. This is exciting...by getting this technique down, I have slashed my operating costs and will now almost certainly use liquid yeast more often.

So here's a big thanks to BB.

I wish it hadn't taken me 70 batches to learn how to do this correctly. Hey, all you n00bs: do yourself a favor and learn how to properly harvest/wash your liquid yeast!

**Bernie Brewer** · 05-19-2008, 07:01 PM

Aw, shucks...........

Glad to see it helped. But really, don't thank me, thank the Wyeast's website- that's where I learned how to do it. But for some reason it's not there anymore.........

Evan! · 05-19-2008, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bernie Brewer

Aw, shucks...........

Glad to see it helped. But really, don't thank me, thank the Wyeast's website- that's where I learned how to do it. But for some reason it's not there anymore.........

maybe I'm just a 'tard, but their instructions were nowhere near as helpful as yours. Maybe it's the pictures, I dunno, but I was using their instructions early on, and that's where I ran into problems.

ohiobrewtus · 05-19-2008, 07:20 PM

Washing yeast provides a tremendous cost savings for only a little time and effort. I use Nottingham from time to time, but 3/4 of all my beers use liquid because I wash yeast regularly.

I've used certain strains as much as 9 months later and still had it be viable and produce a good beer.

**BierMuncher** · 05-19-2008, 07:27 PM

That's who I learned from.

Except I went with the apple juice jugs.

This Kolsch yeast on the right was 4 months old when I mixed it with a starter wort. 12 hours and "boom" goes the starter.

Evan! · 05-19-2008, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BierMuncher

That's who I learned from.

Except I went with the apple juice jugs.

This Kolsch yeast on the right was 4 months old when I mixed it with a starter wort. 12 hours and "boom" goes the starter.

Hehe, nice! I use apple jugs for the starters, but I used various saved jars for storage. I don't do the whole boiling thing, either. Well, I boil the water that I add to wash the yeast, but I don't boil the jars. I just made sure they're clean and soaked 'em in starsan for awhile.

by the way---nice mug there. I've got a couple of those. Ikea?

**springer** · 05-19-2008, 08:19 PM

I tried after reading Bernie's thread several times. I washed a Red Ale yeast set in the fridge for about 3 weeks and decided to give it a try just to see if I did it right. I took a small I mean small amout of yeast and added it to 2 cups of 1.040sh aerated wort. Within a few hours it was swirling and mixing around on its own . I the morning it was overflowing the 1/2 gallon bottle. SWMBO was not amused .

thanks again Bernie.

mr x · 05-19-2008, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evan!

but I don't boil the jars. I just made sure they're clean and soaked 'em in starsan for awhile.

You should make sure they get some very hot water at least. Star-san won't kill any residual yeast that could be hanging around.

**springer** · 05-19-2008, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr x

You should make sure they get some very hot water at least. Star-san won't kill any residual yeast that could be hanging around.

Huh? I thought the whole idea behind Star san and iodopher was to kill off any bacteria and wild yeasts that may be hanging around. After a wash wouldnt the stray yeast be most likely gone?

**olllllo** · 05-19-2008, 08:52 PM

Starsan doesn't kill yeast, that would sort of defeat the purpose, you know, of using it for brewing.